At a glance

This is a trip for anyone who is ready to get away from the normal tourist trail and explore a remote but fascinating part of southern Africa; a hardly inhabited area where age-old tribes eke out a nomadic existence and animals roam beyond the borders of national parks. This is a pioneering journey through remote lands where few others have been, meeting the magnificent Himba tribe who are strangers to modern society and soaking up the dramatic beauty and incredible scenery.

This morning after breakfast, we depart driving north to our first destination, the Okonjima AfriCat Foundation, which is located en-route to Kamanjab. The AfriCat Foundation rehabilitates cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas and leopards and there are opportunities to see these beautiful carnivores in their natural environment. During our visit we will observe some of the programme’s work as well as learn more about these amazing endangered creatures. After our visit we continue our journey to Kamanjab and on to our accommodation for the night.See more images and videos

3Day 3Visit Himba village in Opuwo; to Ruacana.

After breakfast we head north travelling through many small rural villages before arriving in Opuwo, the gateway to the Kaokoveld region. On arrival we explore a traditional Himba Village to experience a journey of culture exchange, learning and understanding the last traditional tribe in Namibia, the Ova-Himba. We continue onto Ruacana where we stop for the evening at our lodge.See more images and videos

4Day 4Cross border into Angola; to Lubango.

Leaving Namibia behind, we cross the border into Angola, and from here on will have an interesting drive with opportunities to stop and see the many Himba people who live in the area. These nomadic people of Angola are completely untouched by modern society and live with very little. Today is our longest journey as we head for the city of Lubango to marvel at the breath-taking Leba pass that winds its way up the mountain to a height of 1845 metres above sea level.
Lubango is set in a lush tropical valley guarded by Cristo Rei, the statue of Christ built high above on the cliffs overlooking the city. This statue is one of only three in the world and is a replica of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro – one of the few remaining signs of hope and peace.See more images and videos

5Day 5To the coast with time to explore the surrounding area.

After an early breakfast, we leave Lubango and travel west towards the coast. Flamingo Lodge is situated in a scenic setting against low cliffs on the beach near the mouth of the dry Rio dos Flamingo. This area of coast is at the northern extent of the Namib Desert and is practically devoid of other tourist activity. We spend the next two days exploring this pristine and beautiful coastline. During our stay there is an opportunity to take a drive into the nearby canyon to hike and explore, hopefully seeing some families of Black-backed jackals along the way.See more images and videos

We head for the city of Lubango today, marvelling at the breathtaking Leba pass that winds its way up the mountain to a height of 1845 metres above sea level.
We make our way into Lubango and up to TundaVala where we spend our afternoon at leisure enjoying the beautiful surroundings and clean mountain air. There is an optional hike to the waterfall where you can take a dip, and enjoy sundowners at the top of the Tunda Vala escarpment. TundaVala is a must see in the city of Lubango. This volcanic fissure climbs to 2600m (8528 ft) above sea level and offers breathtaking views from the edge of the escarpment over rolling hills well above the clouds.See more images and videos

8Day 8Cross border into Namibia; to Ruacana.

Another long driving day we begin our journey back south and along the mainly good tar road back to Ruacana. En-route we stop to look at the abandoned tanks and military vehicles left from the war.See more images and videos

9Day 9To Etosha N.P.; afternoon game drive.

Departing early, we continue into Etosha National Park. Etosha was declared a National Park in 1907, it is home to approximately 114 species of mammals, 340 bird species, 110 species of reptile, 16 species of amphibians and, surprisingly, one species of fish. Entering through the North gate, we arrive to Namutoni where we enjoy the rest of the evening by the swimming pool or at the waterhole watching game.See more images and videos

10Day 10Morning and afternoon game drives in Etosha N.P.

We enjoy a morning and afternoon game drive in the park, in the hopes of spotting some of the big four as well as cheetah, giraffe, zebra and the numerous different types of antelope the park has to offer.See more images and videos

11Day 11To Waterberg Plateau Park.

This morning we bid farewell to the wild animals of Etosha and continue south to the Waterberg Plareau National Park. The Waterberg is a sandstone mountain which rises over 200m from the surrounding plains and is Namibia’s only mountain game park. Waterberg now supplies other Namibian parks with rare species. In 1989, Black rhino were reintroduced to the area from Damaraland, sparking a successful breeding programme of national and international significance for the species. There are various trails to walk along searching for the elusive Damara dik-dik and a good variety of birds.See more images and videos

12Day 12To Windhoek and end.

We leave Waterberg Plateau behind us and travel back to Windhoek where our trip ends after lunch. Those on the group flights will be transferred to the airport for the flight to London.See more images and videos

Your images

Guided Group

This is a small group adult holiday. The group is usually between 6 and 15 in size, with an average of 11 like-minded clients booking individually, in a couple or as friends together.

Activity level

You are healthy, enjoy the outdoors and want a relaxing trip. No experience is required.

What's included

What's included

All breakfasts, 11 lunches and 8 dinners

All accommodation (see below)

All transport and listed activities

Tour leader throughout

Flights from London (if booking incl. flights)

What's not included

Travel insurance

Single accommodation (available on request)

Visas or vaccinations

Accommodation details

Hotels

You will spend 11 nights in standard hotels, 9 with en suite facilities and 2 with shared facilities.

Essential info

Vaccinations and Visa

Visas for Namibia are not required for UK or Commonwealth passport holders. Other nationalities should check before travelling. Please ensure you have a one full blank page in your passport.
Visas for Angola cannot be obtained on arrival at any airport. You must obtain a valid visa and/or work permit before travelling to Angola otherwise you will be detained at the airport and subsequently deported. You should check all entry requirements with the Angolan Embassy in London . The process can take a long time. You should apply at least 8 weeks in advance.
If you are transiting through South Africa and are a non UK passport holder you may require a transit visa. Please check before travelling.
Please note that if flying via South Africa you will probably have to pass immigration there. New regulations, as of the 1 Oct 2014, mean that children under 18 will have to have an unabridged birth certificate showing the names of both parents. If the child is travelling with only one parent they will need to have an affidavit from the other parent, of no more then 3 months, confirming the child can travel with the other parent; a court order granting full legal guardianship of the child; or a death certificate of the deceased parent.
There are no mandatory vaccination requirements. Recommended vaccinations are: Polio, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Typhoid, Hepatitis A. Malaria prophylaxis is essential and we suggest that you seek advice from your GP or travel health clinic about which malaria tablets to take.

Holiday style

This trip visits some remote areas where infrastructure can be limited.

There are some long drives on dirt roads, though these are through stunning landscapes as well as on game drives.

This is a trip for anyone who is ready to get away from the normal tourist trail and explore a remote but fascinating part of Southern Africa. A hardly inhabited area of dramatic beauty where age-old tribes eke out a nomadic existence and game roam outside of national parks.

Trip notes

Download the detailed trip notes for everything you could possibly want
to know about this trip, including detailed itinerary and full kit list.

Weather & seasonality

Namibia and Angola are in the Southern Hemisphere, therefore essentially has the opposite seasonality to the UK. The summer months of June, July and August, whilst clear and warm during the day, can drop down to single figures and even freezing at night. Between September and May it is considerably warmer with the time between October and March being the hottest, getting up to the high 30decC. However it is always a dry heat and the temperature does drop at night. The wet season is between November and February, and we do not offer this itinerary during this time.

Gallery

Reviews & community

This trip was something special: an adventure for the crew as well as for us. We really felt like we were blazing a new trail. It was a fantastic road trip through immense isolated landscapes in Angola and excellent wildlife-viewing opportunities in Namibia. The bush camping was great, the food was delicious (expect to put on weight!) and the daily drives covered such a variety of scenery and road conditions that it was never boring.

What was the most inspirational moment of your trip?

What can I say! This was the best trip I’ve been on. Being out there in near wilderness, on roads seldom travelled, and seeing no other tourists until about two days before the end of the trip!

What did you think of your group leader?

Our group leader and the two other driver/guides were amazing! Considering they had not met each other before this trip, they worked together like a well-oiled machine: keeping us on the road, reassuring us if there were problems and keeping us fed! Their combined experience and knowledge was invaluable: Cristiano is Angolan – his Portuguese was vital; George had previously worked at Etosha National Park and knows the place well. Lucky, our group leader, was calm, very informative and an excellent cook. He is a great tour leader who is highly respected by his crew and passengers. I don’t think any of us felt like we were just another group passing through.

Do you have any advice for potential travellers?

Take warm clothes, even if you may not need them – it was one degree Celsius when we arrived in Windhoek and there are several changes in altitude during the trip, but it does get very hot as well. Also, it might be an idea to take copies of the papers sent for the visa application, just in case they are asked for again at the border. You may also need to prove you have a decent amount of money when crossing the border. Spare camera batteries and spares for your spares!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes – like Chris said – just go for it! If you are prepared for full days of slow bone-shaking driving on rough roads, very basic but remarkably comfortable and relaxing camping conditions, unpredictable border crossings, not seeing anyone else for days, and don’t mind being dirty for a while, don’t miss this trip!
[Also – all our reviews were written in September 2014, not June as it says above them – we really did write them AFTER our trip!]

An amazing journey, by 4WD vehicles, through Northern Namibia, into Angola and back again. Most of the time in Angola was spent bumping and lurching along on tracks which barely qualify as roads, through utter wilderness and extraordinary changing landscapes, seeing almost no other vehicles at all and only occasional villages. The shock of driving on tarmac or arriving in a city (Lubango) after that was strange and immense. We all just wanted to be back in the bush, away from people and traffic and off-road again! We drove through national parks in both countries (Iona in Angola, Etosha in Namibia), with game viewing only a reality in Namibia because the Angolan parks were decimated by the long war and have not recovered yet. We saw fascinating tribal villages and peoples along the way. We had lunch in the middle of lake Arco (Angola) because no rain for 4 years meant it was completely dry! We loved the camping and being in a lodge for the last night felt weird. Bush camping more fun than when we were in established sites! Our loo and (sometimes) shower rigged up by the tour guide often afforded wonderful views while abluting!

What was the most inspirational moment of your trip?

There were too many inspirational moments to mention. The drive up the Leba pass, the views from the top of the Tundavala, the bush camping, our first bush camp shower (all in Angola), the company, the massive massive empty landscapes, the group of 45 elephants at a watering hole just after getting into Etosha national park (Namibia), the combination of rhino, orix, kudu, impala, springbok, warthogs, elephant and bustards at another watering hole, the giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, hartebeest, lions and cheetah all spotted around Etosha, the view from the Waterberg plateau (Namibia) at sunrise, camping on the beach by the atlantic in Angola, barbecued orix fillets etc etc. More than anything, the fact that we were the first group in 7 years to do a trip crossing from Namibia into Angola and back in this way and that we saw no other tourists at all during the whole time in Angola made us feel like privileged pioneers. And that made our guides the envy of the other guides we met once back in Namibia so we were really proud for them too!

What did you think of your group leader?

Our group leader, Lucky, was quite simply exceptional in every way. Massively knowledgeable about the history, politics and economics of Namibia and Angola (and there's a lot of it in light of colonialism, more recent wars and struggles for independence etc), about the flora and fauna we saw, about tribal life etc. He was a fantastic cook and we ate brilliantly all the way through. He was accompanied by 2 fantastic drivers - one for our vehicle (George), one for the back-up vehicle that carried most of the kit and luggage (Cristiano). Cristiano is originally Angolan and his inside knowledge and mastery of Portuguese were essential in Angola and for getting through the borders.

Do you have any advice for potential travellers?

Potential travellers have to be prepared for long and bumpy journeys - but they are good fun in themselves. There's not a lot of walking - except for a short hike at the Waterberg Plateau at the end - fabulous. It's really important to get on and be relaxed as a group as you're in a vehicle together for a lot of the time with little interaction with anyone other than each other and our guides - there were 7 of us plus the team of 3 looking after us and it worked really well. You also need to be relaxed about the time it takes to get through the borders, the bureaucracy involved etc and to just go with the flow. Bring lots of documentation for that with you - especially the invitation letter in Portuguese which you need for getting your visa in advance. The tents were pretty easy to put up and take down and we all did our own, helping each other out, every evening and morning. You need to be ready to get pretty mucky from the dust and sand kicked up by the vehicles, and not too worried about having clean clothes. You must have spare batteries for your camera - very little opportunity to recharge them! If you get car-sick - this trip is not for you.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

A really magical trip. A real privilege to go where few if any other tourists venture in southern Angola. Wow!

A fantastic trip into the remote south-west of Angola. A great feeling of adventure, as this was the first Exodus trip to run there for 7 years. It did feel as though we were pioneering the trip, as much had changed in that time, and much was unknown - such as where to find diesel for the vehicles! Our guide (Lucky) and 2 drivers (George and Cristiano) were brilliant. They worked so hard to make things work out and give us a tremendous time. The group of 7 of us got on well and made the experience really good fun as well. The food was always plentiful and very, very good.
The downsides were perhaps to be expected in a trip which was starting up after a long gap: we couldn't do everything that the trip notes promised, e.g. The visit to ghost town could not happen as it was closed. The most important problem lay with the visit to Lubango, which had clearly changed in the last 7 years. The planned camp-site was deemed by the local military to be unsafe, and the eventual situation under the floodlit statue of Jesus was far from ideal. Given the host of lodges available in Lubango, this needs thinking about for future trips. Details of obtaining an Angolan visa could be made clearer - probably best to say look at the embassy web-site and follow their instructions.
However, it was a brilliant experience, and Etosha really came up trumps with so many good animal sightings. The night at the Waterberg was a lovely way to finish.

What was the most inspirational moment of your trip?

Too many to pick from, but I loved the view from Tunda Vala at Lubango, and spending time on the beach around Flamingo Lodge in Angola. - a very wild and isolated spot.

What did you think of your group leader?

Brilliant! He was a fantastic guide, cook, organiser of camp-sites and leader - and good fun. He also created a great time with the 2 drivers.

Do you have any advice for potential travellers?

Yes - go! We found the weather was warmer than we expected, but at a different time of year that might change. Be aware that in most places in remote Angola, they want their own currency (kwanza) and not US$.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Expect things not to work out exactly as predicted - the area of Angola visited is very poor, isolated and suffers from shortages and lack of good communication - but being Africa things generally work out somehow!

Questions about your trip

Pick your question

Do I need a visa for Namibia?

If you hold a UK passport, you don't need a visa for Namibia. The same applies to other Commonwealth passport holders and quite a few European countries. If you are unsure, please check with the nearest embassy or contact Exodus.

Brendan Phelan - Customer Operations

What vaccinations do I need?

Unfortunately we are not qualified to answer all your questions in regards to travel health, so we strongly recommend you contact your GP or a Travel Health Clinic at least 8 weeks prior to departure for up-to-date information. There will be limited information in the trip notes but you should always seek further qualified medical advice.

Nomad Travel Clinics are experts in preparing people for travel, providing advice on vaccinations, anti-malarial and staying healthy whilst overseas. We have arranged a special 10% discount for Exodus passengers on any vaccinations that you may require! Take along your Nomad discount card, sent with your confirmation pack, or call Exodus for your special discount code.Visit www.nomadtravel.co.uk/exodus for further information.

Exodus staff - expertise on hand to help

All the staff at Exodus share a passion for adventure travel, and are always happy to answer any questions you may have. You can find an expert for the area you are interested in here and can contact them to get further information. If you don't see your specific country listed, please email customerops@exodus.co.uk and they will get the answers you need!

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